Contents of this issue:

PUTTING SCHOOL ON SPEED DIAL

NEWPORT, Mich. — Students at Lutheran High School South are
using school-issued mobile phones to take notes, complete assignments and watch
presentations this year, according to The Detroit News.

The mobile education company GoKnow, co-founded by
University of Michigan engineering professor Elliot Soloway, provided the
phones, The News reported. Soloway projects that every American student will
use a mobile learning device within five years, according to The News.

GoKnow is among many companies moving into mobile education,
The News reported. The California firm Shmoop is recruiting university students
to write digital textbooks on U.S. history, economics and literature which can
be purchased as mobile phone applications, it reported as another example.

"In the future, we're going to see a lot of learning
shifting to phones," Vikrama Savkar, senior vice president for Scitable, told
The News. Scitable is part of London-based Nature Publishing Group, which sells
a mobile science library.

"Homework's more fun with the phone," Lutheran South junior
Caleb Carr told The News.

COVERT ASKS FOR CASH ADVANCE

COVERT, Mich. — Covert Public Schools has asked for an
advance on state aid so that it can make payroll on Oct. 15, according to The
(St. Joseph) Herald-Palladium. The state payment of $148,000 isn't scheduled to
arrive until Oct. 20.

The October payroll is $200,000, bookkeeper June Parker
reported to the board earlier this month, according to The Herald-Palladium.

Covert's revenue dropped by $2.4 million after the state
reclassified some taxes at the nearby New Covert Generating power plant, The
Herald-Palladium reported. The district recently won a lawsuit seeking to
overturn the reclassification, but also has reduced spending by about $2
million, according to the report.

STUDY: CATHOLIC SCHOOL CLOSINGS HURT POOR NEIGHBORHOODS

GERMANTOWN, Md. — Calling urban Catholic schools an
"endangered species," two researchers at Notre Dame Law School concluded that the
quality of life in a neighborhood decreases when the local Catholic school
closes, according to a report in CAPE Outlook.

CAPE Outlook is a publication of the Council for American
Private Education.

The study focused on the impact that Catholic schools have
on community life in Chicago neighborhoods, the Outlook reported.

The researchers wrote that "social cohesion decreases and
disorder increases following an elementary school closure" in poor urban
communities, Outlook reported.

In a letter to Congress, the authors wrote that more than
1,600 Catholic schools, most of them urban, have closed in the past 20 years,
according to Outlook.

FLIER ON CANDIDATE RECEPTION DRAWS QUESTIONS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Kent County Intermediate School
District says that a flier it distributed through school e-mail announcing the
"MEA Grassroots — Patrick Miles Reception," describes an educational forum,
not a political event, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Campaign finance law prohibits public bodies like school
districts from using e-mails to promote political events, Michigan Capitol
Confidential reported.

Miles is endorsed by the Kent County Education Association,
which said on its blog that the event is a "rally" at which "members are
invited to participate and listen and meet Pat Miles, our endorsed 3rd district
candidate," the report said.

The district invited both Miles and his competitor,
Republican Justin Amash, to attend the event to discuss Congressional
educational issues, Kent ISD Assistant Superintendent Ron Koehler told Capitol
Confidential. Amash declined and did not suggest an alternative date when
asked, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The men are candidates in the U.S. 3rd Congressional race,
Michigan Capitol Confidential reported.

"It seems quite the stretch," Patrick Wright, senior legal
analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told Michigan Capitol
Confidential about sending out the flier through the school e-mail.

MEA TOPS LOBBYIST SPENDING LIST

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Education Association spent
nearly $292,000 on lobbying in Lansing in the first seven months of 2010, up 22
percent from a year ago, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
The release said that the teachers union was the top-spending interest group.

Multi-client lobbyist firms, such as Governmental Consultant
Services Inc., spent more overall, but are not required to report how much they
spend on individual clients, the release said.

Reports do not indicate which legislation, spending or
regulations each lobbyist is trying to affect, according to the news release.
Lobbyists also are not required to report expenditures that directly benefit
officeholders unless that spending meets threshold requirements, the release
said.

For example, loans or sales between lobbyists and
officeholders do not have to be reported unless they exceed $1,100, according
to the Campaign Finance Network, and travel and lodging provided to
officeholders for "official business" doesn't have to be reported unless the
value exceeds $725.

MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education Report (http://www.educationreport.org), an online newspaper published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (http://www.mackinac.org), a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.